A major focus of companies today is the security and visibility of management, processing or delivery of high value asset is outsourced to another company. The use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags to facilitate item tracking is well known.
RFID tags are electronic devices that generally comprise a passive transponder and an integrated circuit programmed with unique identification information. In the context of a supply chain they are located on items and pallets of the items and may be used as a replacement for barcodes to identify items.
An RFID tag reader is used to read the unique data programmed on the RFID tag. An RFID tag reader is comprised of an antenna. a transceiver and a decoder can be configured either as a handheld unit or a fixed-mount device. The reader emits radio waves in ranges of anywhere from a few centimeters to about 40 meters, depending on the readers power output and the radio frequency used. When an RFID tag passes through the reader's electromagnetic zone, it detects the reader's activation signal. This signal energizes the RFID tag and enables the tag to transmit data, which is encoded on its integrated circuit, to the reader. The reader decodes this data, which may be passed to a host computer for processing.
RFID tags are generally passive tags, as discussed above, in that they have no internal power source and rely on an external source to provide power. In some instances, RFID tags may be active, in that they have an internal power source. Active RFID tags are more expensive and bulkier than passive RFID tags and, as such, are generally not the preferred tracking device for item level tracking.
Due to memory and processor limitations, the data stored on RFID tags is generally little more than a unique identifier for the item. Conventional systems offer little more than an electronic bar code that can be read from moderate distances.
A further disadvantage of prior art RFID tracking system is the lack of synchronicity and integrity of data across an entire supply chain. As different entities become involved in subsequent phases of the supply chain, the effective tracking of items from source to destination becomes complex and expensive. The integration of a company's backend systems with transport contractors and the like to enable auditing and tracking of the company's items throughout the supply chain is difficult and not scaleable.
For example consider the situation where a transport contractor is used by a wide variety of companies to move freight. Each company has their own RFID system, while the transport contractor has its own RFID system. While the transport company can read the data on the RFID tags for each company, the integration of the transport contractor's backend computer system with that of each company is more difficult and expensive, and hence the companies have difficult in reliably tracking their products throughout the supply chain.
More sophisticated tags have been developed whereby these tags have wireless communication capabilities, position determination capabilities, and environmental sensing capabilities. These tags are able to send geographical location schemes known in the art that a sophisticated tag may employ to determine its geographical location. These include standard GPS positioning, and a range of location specific radio location methods that rely on the sophisticated tag interacting with local reference entities that have a known position. The sophisticated tag interacts with the local location technology that is supported, or the GPS system, in order to communicate its geographical location to the supplier.
However, different locations throughout the supply chain employ different location determination schemes. Furthermore, GPS can be unreliable when used in an indoor location or when the GPS satellite signals are obscured such as in a warehouse or within a shipping container. As such, a significant difficulty that suppliers encounter when trying to reliably track an asset through the supply chain is that the asset may pass through locations that support varying location determination schemes and hence it may not be possible for the sophisticated tag to determine its geographical location at all locations throughout the supply chain.
What is needed is a sophisticated tag that has the capability to reliably determine its geographical location at all points throughout the supply chain.